Friday, November 25, 2011

Why didn't Jesus tell us the day and the hour of his return?

1st
Sunday of Advent, Mark 13:33-37

Be
watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.

As we enter upon the season of
Advent, the Church with all her children looks to the coming of the Christ.
There are, of course, three advents of our Savior: First, when he came as a
child (and this is the mystery celebrated on Christmas); second, when we will
come at the end of time (and this is the focus of Christ the King and of the
first days of Advent); and then a “middle coming”, when he enters the soul by sanctifying
grace.

This Sunday’s Gospel focuses on
the second coming, the Parousia, the
Final Judgment. Our Savior stresses that we do not know the day or hour of his
return, and therefore we must watch and
pray. Still, we may ask why it was that Jesus didn’t tell us when he would
return in glory. Would it not be helpful for us to know the exact time of the judgment?

Christ
knew the day and hour of his return

Some will say that our Lord did
not tell us the time of his return on account of his ignorance – as though the
Savior did not know the day and the hour. Indeed, the Lord at first seems to
say this himself: Of that day or hour no
man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father
(Mark 13:32).

The Church has, however,
interpreted this passage to mean not that the Son does not know absolutely, but
rather that he “does not know” in the sense that he does not make it to be
known – just as we say that a day is “happy” not because it is happy itself,
but because it makes us happy. Further, St. Gregory the Great specifies that
while Jesus did not know the day and the hour from his humanity, he did know it in his humanity. Finally, we must all admit that, as God, Christ
Jesus most certainly knew and knows all things – therefore, he knew the day and
the hour of his coming, but chose not to reveal it to us.

Let a quote from Pope Vigilius
suffice: “If anyone says that the one Jesus Christ who is both true Son of God
and true Son of man did not know the future or the day of the Last Judgment […]
anathema sit.” (Constitutum I of 14 May 553)

For a further discussion of
this verse, consider our previous article – here.

We
cannot discern the day of the final judgment

Further, we must hold that man
cannot discover the time of the judgment, it has not been revealed and it will
not be made known until it occurs.
St. Thomas Aquinas, following St. Augustine, offers the following explanation
of why the “signs” given in Scripture cannot lead to an exact knowledge of the time
of the judgment (ST
Supplement, q.88, a.3, ad 2):

“As Augustine says, in his letter to Hesychius concerning the
day of judgment (Ep. cxcix), ‘the
signs mentioned in the Gospels do not all refer to the second advent which will
happen at the end of the world, but some of them belong to the time of the sack
of Jerusalem, which is now a thing of the past, while some, in fact many of
them, refer to the advent whereby He comes daily to the Church, whom He visits
spiritually when He dwells in us by faith and love.’

“Moreover, the details mentioned in the Gospels and Epistles
in connection with the last advent are not sufficient to enable us to determine
the time of the judgment, for the trials that are foretold as announcing the
proximity of Christ's coming occurred even at the time of the Early Church, in
a degree sometimes more sometimes less marked; so that even the days of the
apostles were called the last days (Acts 2:17) when Peter expounded the saying
of Joel 2:28, It shall come to pass in
the last days, etc., as referring to that time. Yet it was already a long
time since then: and sometimes there were more and sometimes less afflictions
in the Church. Consequently it is impossible to decide after how long a time it
will take place, nor fix the month, year, century, or thousand years as
Augustine says in the same book (Ep. ad
Hesych. cxcix).

“And even if we are to believe that at the end these
calamities will be more frequent, it is impossible to fix what amount of such
calamities will immediately precede the judgment day or the coming of
Antichrist, since even at the time of the Early Church persecutions were so
bitter, and the corruptions of error were so numerous, that some looked forward
to the coming of Antichrist as being near or imminent; as related in Eusebius'
History of the Church (vi, 7) and in Jerome's book De Viris Illustribus LII.”

On a more fundamental level, we
hold that man cannot discern the day of judgment because this day will occur
without any human intervention or assistance. It is not that man will continue
to progress and bring about heaven on earth, but rather God (entirely according
the judgment of his own free will) will come suddenly upon the earth and all
will be changed.

Because the last day is not a
result of man’s acting or willing it, neither can man discern the time of the
judgment without the special revelation of God. And Jesus has told us that no
such revelation will be given. Therefore, we cannot know the time of the second
coming of our Savior.

It
is to our benefit that we do not know

If Jesus did not reveal to us the
time of his return, though he could have, then we know that it was to our
benefit that he kept this mystery hidden. Whatsoever Jesus does, he does out of
love for us and for our salvation. Hence, we must realize that it is conducive
to our salvation that we know not the time of judgment.

Still, we must admit that, at
first glance, one could think that it would be better to know – after all, then
one could be sure to be prepared. How shall we respond to this?

St. Thomas Aquinas quotes St. Theophylus in the Catena Aurea: “See again that He has not
said, I know not when the time will be, but, you know not. For the reason why
He concealed it was that it was better for us; for if, now that we know not the
end, we are careless, what should we do if we knew it? We should keep on our
wickednesses even to the end.”

It is better that we do not
know, because then we will be vigilant and will strive all the more to live a
virtuous life. Indeed, if we knew the hour of our death and the hour of
judgment, then we would be tempted to put of conversion until the last moment –
but what chance would we have of reforming our lives or making a true act of
contrition at the last moment, if we had purposely remained in sin throughout
our life? The sin of presumption would be so strong in us as to be overpowering
– and we would not (for the most part) succeed in converting, but would be lost
to our sin and vice. If we put off converting to the end, we will never
convert.

Further, we add that virtue is
its own reward – and we are happier if we live a life in union with God than if
we live a life of sin. However, in the beginning especially, fear of judgment
can be a great help to sever our vice and increase our virtue; and then we move
from fear to love, as we gain more freedom from sin and freedom for God.

Therefore, it is good for us that we watch and
pray. It is good that we know neither the day nor the hour. And Christ our
Savior, who hid this knowledge from us, is very merciful indeed.

15
comments:

While I was still living in the Diocese of Portland (entire state of Maine) the Bishop published a Fr McBrien column in which Father - citing that scriptural passage - claimed that Jesus was ignorant; he also went on to claim that Jesus was in error (there were a few stones on other stones after the Temple was destroyed) and that Jesus was sexually tempted (He was tempted like all of us are sexually tempted.)

That is the sort of execrable bile Bishops allowed to be pumped into the minds of Catholics which helped to poison and corrupt the pellucid Doctrine of Holy Mother Church and so, Father, I thank you for this clear explanation of that putative difficult passage.

Such confusion abounds in protestant theology and that is why I find is so lamentable that Our Holy Father's books on Jesus of Nazareth includes references to far more protestant theologians than Traditional Catholic Theologians.

@I am not Spartacus,That sounds like a terrible terrible article! I'm very sorry to hear that a bishop would allow such trash to be published.Indeed, I agree, this is very much the result of the protestantization of the Church.Let us pray for one another! +

Even if I knew when Christ was coming, I would be vigilant. I try not to sin at all. Even if some things we do offend the Lord, I believe it is possible to be practically sinless now, not later. It is the tongue which commits most sin, and controlling that is what we must do or all fall into Hell. Lies are probably the sin Jesus hates most, since his Adversary Satan was the Father of Lies...

I know some really evil Catholics who are putting off confession so they can sin all they want. They just keep on doing mortal sin after mortal sin, sure that they will have time to get to confession before they die. It is almost enough to make me a Protestant, protesting their utter hypocrisy! But my motto is: You love as much as you forgive, and as much as you give!

Father, I was wondering where you obtained the artwork for the above piece? Is it in the public domain, or would you know how I could obtain permission to use it? (I just taped a CD series on the Book of Revelation with St. Joseph Radio, and am looking for appropriate cover art.). My sincere thanks, Shane Kapler www.explainingchristianity.comP.S. I am sorry if this posted twice. It didn't look like my first attempt went through.

Thank you very much for clarifying one of the most difficult sayings of Jesus, that He did not know FROM His humanity, but He did know IN His humanity. Happy Advent, Father! Thanks for your prayers for us poor sinners who still act like there's no Judgment! (I keep forgetting!)

Jesus certainly knew the day and hour of his return although he said: "only the Father knows" which the Father established from his own power.What we should be concerned about is our own individual departure from this earth as that time will decide final destiny.If the present order is to last another 2000 years or 200 years or even 20 years, how knowing that can benefit us if we do not qualify to meet the Lord.Fritz Dlier 11/30/11